Puzzles
by RandomFanatic
Summary: When Fury gives the X-Men a questionable mission, and hints that Logan has children that he didn't know about, they accept the mission, but what they find is a web of puzzles; Logan's past, the X-Men's future, and the life of his children.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I definitely own nothing… except my OCs… they are mine.

Warnings: violence, and perhaps a bit of language later on…

Please read and review!

It was a normal day at the Xavier Mansion. Not much going on… maybe a few screaming kids running around and using their powers in inappropriate ways, like freezing the crap out of someone, and electrocuting each other, possibly running through the walls of peoples rooms as they bang pots and pans together.

But over all, it was completely normal.

Storm sat out on the balcony, watching the clouds go by. Wolverine was in the kitchen, drinking some two percent milk, and reading the morning newspaper. Rogue and Gambit sat in the rec room and watched the younger students goof off.

It was a pretty peaceful morning. Not a care in the world for any of the X-men… until…

The doorbell rang, and Rogue stood up, calling "I've got it!" to the rest of them, causing them all the completely ignore her, and continue what they were doing, completely unfazed.

A brown haired man in his late forties stood there, an eye patch over his left eye, and a blue outfit covering his muscled body.

Rogue raised and eyebrow at him, and asked, "How may I help you?" the man looked down at her, eying her carefully, and replied, "May I speak to Logan." It was more of a demand than a question. Her eyebrow raised even higher as she scrutinized the man before her.

"May I let him know who's asking?" she asked sweetly, still studying him.

"No. Tell him S.H.I.E.L.D's here." He said sternly.  
"I don't know, with that response, he might _not_ be home." She said, smirking sarcastically.

"Listen, this is a matter of national- heck, _inter_national security. Now, is he home, or _not_." He said, losing his patience.

"Fury. What are you doin' here?" a deep, irritated voice asked sternly. 'Fury' looked behind Rogue, and made eye contact with a not-too-happy Wolverine.

"We need to talk, Logan, _just_ us two." Fury said, eying Rogue again. Wolverine stepped forward to stand beside Rogue, and said, "Whatever you need to say to me, you can say in front of Rogue, too."

Just then, Gambit entered the lobby from the rec room, and seeing the scary man at the door, went to stand slightly behind Rogue.

Fury sighed, "Very well, in fact, you may want _all_ the X-Men to hear this, as you won't be able to do _this_ mission by yourself."

In the living room, once all the X-Men had settled into the many couches in the room, Fury addressed them, saying, "Five highly dangerous mutants have escaped from the Alpha Flight holding cells in Eastern Canada. We believe they used to belong to the program known as 'Weapon X'. Because of their behavior, we believe four of them are first-degree psychopaths. Their supposed leader, the eldest girl, we know for sure a third-degree. She is sadistic and masochistic. They have all been surgically enhanced. The Canadian government borrowed several of Kelly's sentinels, but they were all destroyed, quite thoroughly. We need the X-Men to bring them back in, so we can return them to their rightful places, in the captivity of Alpha Flight."

Everyone was silent a moment, thinking about these escapees, until Logan asked, "And how do we know you're not just trying to use them as weapons, and they escaped? I have a feeling this is a repeat of the time you sent me after the Hulk, and he turned out to be the good guy."

Fury looked at him sternly, and everyone else in the room, besides Logan, cringed at his expression.

"You know, Logan, we _had_ a tracking system on each of them, and a video camera so we could keep an eye on them until we could catch them. _She_ destroyed them. She actually _bit_ them, and they blew up, _in her mouth_, and yet it didn't harm her. They had been heading south, towards DC; do you know how much damage they could do there? They could_ destroy _the world as we know it. One of them has an artificial cybernetic mind; she can_ talk_ to computers. They are lead by a psychotic ex- Weapon X-er. You know how they are. One of them is a metamorphosis. We _all_ know what _they_ can do. One of them can shoot bullets out of his fingertips. Another _makes her own virus_, which she can _pass _to others, _through touching them._ The results of this can be passing out, going blind, being paralyzed, or an extremely slow, painful death, within seconds. And yet _another_ can transform his arms into swords. Do you _really_ want those mutants to get to the White House?" he asked accusingly, his eyebrows contorted into a 'Buzz Lightyear' pose.

Logan's face was blank, but you could tell he was irritated. He definitely did _not_ like this guy. "No. But why can't you have, per ce, the Fantastic Four take care of these creeps?" he asked nonchalantly.

"_Because_ these 'creeps' happen to be heading in a straight line for a certain 'Native American Reservation'… that _may_ contain some… relatives of yours." the man said ominously.

"What are you talking about, Fury?" Logan demanded. Fury smirked evilly, looking down on the seated Wolverine.

"What if I told you, that you had _children_ that you were not aware of?" Fury looked at Logan's face, and, seeing that he was interested in this statement, smiled, and said, "Have fun on your mission." And walked out the front door of the Xavier Institute.

"Do you think he was telling the truth, Logan?" Storm asked cautiously.

"I don't know… usually what Fury says isn't completely true… he may be lying about some of what he said… but, somehow, I think there _is_ an… _edge_ of truth there… somewhere."

"Do you think we should go and try to capture the escapees? Professor?" Kitty Pryde asked.

"I believe that you should be asking Logan that, Kitty." Professor X answered, causing Kitty's eyes to travel from him, to Logan.

"I think we should, Logan. They sound pretty dangerous, to me. And these 'completely normal' mornings are _so_ boring."  
"Fine. Let's go."

Okay… so there's the first chapter…

It might kinda suck… but please review! I don't think I'll do the next one until I have… three reviews.

PLEASE review.

Reviews are love. I love my readers... don't you love me? 0.0


	2. Chapter 2

So in this chapter, I'm going to bring in some new characters.  
and just for a reference, I'm using the Team X from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but the Jubilee from the cartoons.

After a quick headcount in the Blackbird, the X-Men had taken off north, where they assumed the escapees would be, according to Fury's description.

"How are we gonna find them? We have no idea what we're looking for." Jubilee asked Logan from behind quietly.

"I… don't know. I'm hopin' Jeannie will be able to sense that cybernetic mind he was talkin' 'bout." He answered, turning to face her and motioning to Jean. Jubilee nodded, but continued to stand there, as if wanting to say something more.

"Logan… what if-" but she was cut off by a huge explosion on the ground. Everyone rushed to a window to look down at the red mass of smoke coming out of a heavily wooded area.

"Vell, I'm gonna go ahead and guess zhat right down zhere vould be a good place to go ahead and look for zhem." Nightcrawler said, pointing down at where the explosion originated.

"I'm taking us down, sit down and get buckled." Storm said with her regal voice. Everyone nodded and did as told. Jubilee looked panicked as she sat down across from Wolverine.

"I feel like something really bad is about to happen." She said, as the population of the Blackbird was bounced about when the sleek ship came into contact with trees.

Soon they were landed in a small clearing in the trees, with a small layer of trees between them and where the smoke was still rising.  
"Well, let's go. But remember, be careful, from what Fury said earlier, we can assume that the five of them are armed and, or dangerous." Storm said, leading the group into the small thicket of trees.

When they came out on the other side, they found themselves in front of a small house. It was in the middle of a bunch of trees, and by the looks of it, it was very old. Garbage was strewn across the front yard like a dump, and some kind of rotten smell emanated from the front porch. There were holes in the front walls of the house, as if someone took a gun to it, and there were random boards missing from the porch. In all, this place was a dump, and no one was really looking forward to going inside it.

"What are we doin' waitin' out here? Let's go inside." Gambit said, shuffling his deck of cards and stepping towards the door.

"Ah don't know, Cajun, we might wanna check de place out, first." Rogue said, eyeing the broken windows on the second story, until, "did you guys jus' dat? Someone was lookin' t'rough dat window, right dere!" Gambit exclaimed, pointing at one of them. Rogue rolled her eyes, saying, "well then, Ah guess we should go right in, since dey already know we' heah."

"Okay." And with that, the X-Men entered the small hovel, and found a one-room down stairs. There was no light besides the glow from behind the window curtains. All they could that was in the room was a staircase leading upstairs against the back wall. With the door propped opened about a quarter of the way, all of them stepped in, and stood next to the front wall, awaiting orders from Wolverine or Storm.

But before either of the two could get a word out, something silver came flying over their heads from the bottom of the staircase, and slammed into the door, closing it loudly. It was a knife, with a blade of about five inches, and it was now sticking out of the door at the hilt, the rest still embedded in the bland wood. After everyone realized this, their heads swerved to the bottom step of the stairs, where a young girl sat, probably in her late teens. They hadn't noticed her at first due to her long black hair and black trench coat she wore. She was staring at them with a cold glare, her dark blue eyes flashing in the dark.

"What are you doing here?" She asked coldly, standing up with the grace of a cat. Now that she was completely facing them, her paper-white skin glowed in the faint light from outside. When no one answered her question, as most of them were too stunned to, she removed her coat, revealing a spandex outfit made of a dark navy blue with red streaks down the sides. She had two straps going from each shoulder to the diagonal hip, making a black 'x' across her chest. She also had a strap around her waist, with a sword, several guns, and two knives sheathed in it. Two katana hilts stuck out above her shoulders.

"I said, what are you doing here?" She said, with a sting to her voice.

"Kassidy? What's going on down there?" a voice sounded from above, sounding as if the speaker were standing at the top step.

"Why don't you come see?" she snapped up at the speaker irritably. And so the person did. The boards of the steps creaked as he came down, and out from the shadows of the steps came a boy, about the girl's age. His long, wavy black hair bounced on his shoulders as his light teal eyes went over each and every one of the X-Men, as if he could read them like books.

"Oh." He said simply, shrugging and turning back to the steps so as to leave to do whatever she was going to do.

But then, she sniffed the air, like a hound sniffs the air as he recognizes a familiar scent. She looked around the walls, as if she could see through them to the outside. She sniffed again, and closed her eyes, concentrating.

Meanwhile, the X-Men looked at each other, silently agreeing that these people were nut-jobs. The girl's eyes snapped back open, and in a swift movement, she somehow threw all the X-Men against the back wall, probably using some kind of telekinetic power.

"Melinda!" She shouted up the stairs. Another teenager came running down, her black, plaited hair jumping about on her shoulders, curtaining her tan skin "make a shield up for…" she looked at the X-Men, "our guests." The girl looked at the now disgruntled group of mutant superheroes, tilting her head to one side, shrugged, and created a giant white and gray fluctuating wall of light around the X-Men. Now that they were thoroughly confused and trapped, Wolverine opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted when a big **BOOM** came from outside. All eyes were on the front door as it burst open, and in walked three men, one they recognized as Sabretooth, a black man with a cowboy hat and a beard, and an angry looking Asian man with two ridiculous looking guns sticking out of his pockets.

"Hilt, you are ta surrender ta us, before we have ta hurt chu." The black man said smoothly, holding his monster-sized gun with two hands, and patting it from underneath. The Asian man grinned, put his hands on the hilts of his guns, and said, "Or not surrender, and we can have some fun before we take you back to the lab, rewire your brain, and send you on some more missions. Your choice."


	3. Chapter 3

The girl cracked her knuckles, and turned back to the younger tan girl, and growled, "Keep the shield up, Melinda." She eyed the X-Men, not untrustingly, but as if she didn't see other humans very often.

The other girl faced the new comers, and snarled, "You didn't think it would be THAT easy, did you, Wraith? I hope not, because in that case, I'll have to disappoint you." She pulled up her sleeves, revealing three hilts, probably of knives, lying flat against her arms, the blades making prominent shapes under her skin.

"Joseph, just, uh, stand there, in case something happens." The girl said to the boy, who was just standing off to the side, as she pulled a particularly long knife blade out of her arm. Shadowcat winced as she saw this, not understanding why anyone would want to do that to themselves.

The Asian man just smiled wickedly, shrugged, pulled out his gun, and made a vertical lines of bullets across the room, specifically where the girl stood, hitting the trench-coat-girl at least three times; one in the stomach, one in the chest, and one in the head. Most of the X-Men cringed as they watched this happen, and expected the girl to fall, and most likely bleed and die. Way too simple.

And anyway, that would end this story way too soon.

No, instead, she just laughed, well, more like growled, and pulled the three bullets out, nodding to 'Joseph as she dropped them to the ground. The boy made a weird forward pushing motion with his arm, and the bullets flew at the three men in the doorway. The three's eyes grew wide, and one of them dodged in time, another teleported two feet to the left, just missing it still, but one hit Sabretooth square in the face. He growled, and pulled it out, scowling at the two, and extracting his claws.

"Oh, shut UP already. We all know you're just an oversized kitty who enjoys playing with a ball of yarn and is afraid of water. You can leave now." The girl, Kassidy, motioned for 'Melinda', the other girl, to push him, telekinetically, out of the house, which she did, meanwhile making another, suspiciously Sabretooth-shaped, hole in the wall.

"Now, are you two going to RUN, or are we going to have to MAKE you?" Kassidy said, lifting an eyebrow and fiddling with the knife in her hand, foreshadowing her next move with a smirk.

"Uh, no. Not before we show off our, NEW weapon." Kassidy rolled her eyes, and, as they (still) sat watching, the X-Men started to whisper. 'What do they mean, 'new weapon'?' 'Are these guys not actually the bad ones?' 'What the heck is going on here?'

And in through the door, came a blonde-haired girl, a little younger than the other three.

"Misty? This is your new weapon? Wow. You really are doomed." Kassidy said, casually throwing the knife at 'Zero's' head. He dodged just in time, and turned to see the vibrating hilt of it, sticking out from the wall.

"Misty, she's looking down on you. Show her what happens when someone does that." Zero smiled wickedly, motioning for the girl to attack Kassidy.

'Misty' scowled at Kassidy, as she SHAPESHIFTED into some kind of negative Kassidy, wearing all white with blonde hair and light brown eyes. Everyone, besides Zero and the black man, were taken aback by this. This negative-Kassidy smiled sweetly at the real Kassidy, and then turned into another girl, one with brown hair and brown eyes, and pale, pasty white skin, that the X-Men didn't recognize. Kassidy wasn't surprised when the shapeshifter multiplied, quickly filling the room with copies of herself as this brunette. It DID surprise her, though, when one of them behind her pulled out a knife, and shoved it through her back, right over her heart. She gasped, and fell to the floor, clutching the blade now sticking through her chest, and fell limp.

"Well, that's crap." Joseph said, rolling his eyes as the metamorphosis changed into another person, a woman with long brown hair and dark brown eyes, probably more of Storm's age. She looked slightly Native American, like the girl who was making the shield that 'protected' the X-Men.

"What is, honey?" the (one) figure of the metamorphosis leaned closer to the boy, smiling 'sweetly'. Joseph just rolled in eyes in return, and made a gun with his hand, flicked it, and a black bullet shot out of his fingertips, and hit the woman in the head.

"You can't trick me with that crap, Misty." The girl freaked out for a second, groping her forehead and such, but then she shapeshifted into none other than….

Deadpool.  
"Hahahaha, hey Joey boy! Howya doin' buddy?" he smiled widely, and did a weird back flip as Joseph tried to shoot him, and landed on one knee, gun already aimed at Joseph's head.  
"Ya know, the more I think about this, the more I like Wade's mutant ability. Easier to shoot people with." And with that, she pulled the trigger.

Joseph copied his/her movements, and dodged it, but he/she fired another one, and hit him full in the chest.

"Wow, this just keeps gettin' better, don' it?" he said, his chest absorbing the metal of the bullet and healed over.

"Ha, yeah, for me! You just absorbed raw Adamantium. You'll probably pass out from poisoning in a couple minutes." She said, cocking her eyebrow up as she transformed back to her own blond self.

"Now," she placed the end of a gun against his head, and continued, "we're gonna finish this, right here, right now, Howlett."

A/N

GASP! Please review, so I can keep writing this, peeps! I love you! (as a friend!)


	4. Chapter 4

Storm looked over the mess she knew as the X-men. When Gambit's head hit the wall as they were thrown across the room, he knocked him out cold. Wolverine looked somewhat disgruntled, snarling and growling and going on. Rogue was rubbing a bruise on her forehead, Iceman was tending to his arm, which had twisted wrong, Shadowcat was trying to see if she could go through the shield the one girl was projecting. It wasn't working. Nightcrawler was trying to teleport through it… and he did, but the girl gave him a nasty look and he teleported back (he's easily intimidated).

So now, we just have to wait until they (hopefully) let us out. All the while we've been working to get out, the older girl (with the crazy knife thingy trick) has been talking with these three men, that Storm hadn't even noticed till a second ago. But before she could understand what was going on (the shield seemed to be sound proof) the three men left, replaced by a young teenage girl with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

Now the rest of the X-men seemed to being standing up then, blocking Storm's view of what was happening on the other side of the shield. Leaning against the wall, she stood up, and felt the after math of having her back shoved against the wall, telekinetically nonetheless.

She peaked over Wolverine's head, just in time to see the black haired girl fall to the ground (knife in chest and all) and the brunette press a gun to the boy's forehead.

"Wolverine, we must do something!" Storm whispered to the Canadian.

"Why? We don't know which side we're supposed to be on, anyway." The man shrugged gruffly, and turned back to watch. Storm scowled, and also looked back. From the corner of her eye, she saw movement from the black haired girl, she seemed to reaching for the knife currently impaling her chest. With a shaky hand, she grasped it, and pulled it out. She sat up, and the hole in her chest was visible to the entire audience. But just as they saw it, it disappeared, completely healed. She stood up, quietly so as not to be noticed by the brunette. She pulled another knife out of her arm, and snuck up behind the brunette, who was still talking to the boy, gun to his head. She plunged her hand forward, and impaled the girl, who immediately dropped the gun she was holding to clutch at the hole in her chest. Falling to the ground, she seemed to whisper something to the boy, before falling limp.

He looked from Misty, lifeless on the ground, to Kassidy.

"Dude, you just killed Misty! I can't believe you!" what should've come out as a tone of disgust fell short as his eyes suddenly grew larger, and he clutched where the girl now lying on the floor had shot him moments ago. It had healed completely, but the two of them knew what happened to him last time he absorbed adamantium. His hand suddenly broke out in hives, and a sheet of sweat appeared on his forehead, and just like that, he was unconscious on the ground, Kassidy's eyes found the other girls, both speechless.

"You can let the shield down, Melinda." Kassidy said, still looking concerned for the boy, but not really looking at him. The girl nodded and let down the fluctuating transparent wall, releasing the X-men from the small confinement.

She ran to the boy's side, looking up at the other girl from her kneeling position beside him, looking for help.

"There's nothing we can do, Melinda. Come one, we got other business to finish up, elsewhere. We can't wait." Kassidy said, giving the X-men a scrutinizing glare, and turning towards the front door, motioning to the girl to come with her. With one last look down at the boy, she stood and followed Kassidy out the door. The X-men watched them go, and Storm rushed to the boy now lying unconscious on the floor.

"I don't see how they could just leave him like that." Wolverine snarled.

"That does not matter right now, this boy needs some serious medical attention." Storm said in her regal tone, checking the boy's temperature with the back of her hand.

"Hey, can I have a little help over here?" came a little plea from Iceman, who was currently trying to move an unconscious Gambit off of him. Rogue rolled her eyes and pushed the Cajun off, and turned her eyes again to the black haired mystery boy the girls had just ditched.

"Wolverine, can you carry him back to the Blackbird? Hank will need to take a look at him, and once he awakes, he will have some questions to answer. In the meantime, Rogue, will you carry Gambit?"  
The southern belle rolled her eyes, but nodded, turning to Gumbo, muttering something like, 'you better not be fakin', Swamprat.'

Soon, they were back in the X-mansion, and the young mutant boy was down in the lab. Hank had already done an x-ray, DNA sampling, and background check on him, and discovered that he has a skeleton of metal, mixed and matched; some parts copper, other titanium, others just random junk metal, and even some gold. His DNA also had some metal in it, aside from the normal iron. The background checks couldn't have been less disappointing though. He had looked up the name 'Joseph Howlett' and found that he was supposedly a young boy who had died in a fire near the Rocky Mountains in northern Canada.

"Try looking up a Kassidy Howlett" Storm suggested, guessing the two were siblings.

"Okay, let's see… nope. Says here she died in a fire too." Hank said, typing in the name, and finding it too, was a dead end.

"This is very intriguing. Fury had said that five mutants that had been in with those three had been in Weapon X… but I can't find anything about them." Hank whispered, turning his swivel-chair around to face Storm.

"That's just how they work. Don't leave a trace of who they had been behind. Look up a report on that fire in Canada." Wolverine snarled as he walked through the threshold into the lab. Hank nodded and swiveled back to face the computer.  
"Says here that it started in a small Native American community in the mountains. The Chieftain of the Native American tribe was found badly bruised, and slightly maniacal. They think, while he was trying to escape the fire, he hit his head on something, or fell somewhere, causing bruises and brain damage. That's all it really says. Here's some links to videos about it. Do you wish to look at some of those, Logan?" Hank said, scrolling down to a list of videos.

"Try that one." Logan pointed to the second one down as he sat down beside Hank in the lab. Hank obliged, and clicked on it, then paused it, letting it load.

"Why are you suddenly so interested, Logan?" Storm asked, standing behind the two men at their seats.

"I don't know, I just- knowing what Weapon X did to me, I just don't want that kind of thing to happen to a bunch of kids. And anyway, I don't know about you two, but I didn't understand one thing that happened back there. Seems like those three made a break for it and ran away from the Weapon X facility, now the other Weapon X's are trying to either kill 'em, or bring 'em back. And trust me, I know how that works. Now play the video"

Hank nodded, and clicked the mouse, not wanting to push such a subject with Logan.

It started out with a man and woman sitting at a desk, talking about the weather, or something, then the man shuffled his papers around, and said, "today, July fifth, nineteen ninety-four, a devastating fire has taken out a whole Native American community in the Rockies. Five log cabins have been burned beyond repair, and two have been heavily damaged. Most of the residents got out uninjured, but as many as six youths have yet to be found, along with several missing adults. Here's Mary Anderson, with an on sight report. Here you go Mary."

Now, the scenery cut to a young woman with long brown hair standing in front of several singed wood cabins nestled in tall evergreens. Closer to the cabins in the background, a young woman was crying, no doubt over her losses in the fire.

"Thank you, Richard. It was early this afternoon when an oil leak started a fire, awakening the residents of this peaceful community. As the fire ripped through these wooden homes, the locals ran from their homes, but a few did not make it. As you can imagine, people mourn those lost today."  
The camera began to roam over the people standing there; women wrapped closely in hand-woven blankets, their black hair plaited into two braids, or left to flow down to their shoulders. Men held their families close, or dug about in the rubble left from the fire, trying to find possessions or missing loved ones.

"Several adults and children have been confirmed deceased, but several are still missing. Three of those were orphaned triplets named Melinda, Kassidy, and Joseph Howlett. They were three years old."

The camera continued to roll around the people surrounded the sight of the fire.

"Wait, pause it." Wolverine said, looking at the people on the computer screen.

"Look, is that…?" Storm pointed to a woman on her knees, crying, her blonde hair and pale hands covering her face.

"It is. It's Emma Frost."

A/N Thanks for reading! I 3 u! I know it's probably confusing so far, but I'll explain everything later!

And for those of you who were wondering, Misty's power is to be able to absorb and copy DNA (powers) of whoever's blood she absorbs (she absorbs blood through her skin)

Before they sent her against the three other OC's you've seen so far, they wiped her memory and had her absorb some of Mystique's blood.

So yeah.

PLEASE review! And subscribe!


	5. Chapter 5

"Why would Emma be in Canada, crying about some fire on a rez nonetheless?" Storm thought aloud.

"Why don't you ask her" Logan pointed behind him with his thumb, as he had heard Emma open the door, however so quietly.

Storm and Beast looked behind their Canadian friend, and saw the blond leaning against the doorway.

"Emma, why…?" Storm started, but was cut off by Frost.

"The same reason you three looked it up." she said, keeping her airy aura about her. When there seem to be no light bulbs turning on, she raised her eyebrow.  
"Because of those three. If you haven't figured it out yet, the three you saw today were triplets." She said, her British accent as snobby-sounding as ever.

There was a pause.

"But what does that have to do with you?" Hank asked. Emma sighed, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

"They were my older sister's children. I was going to go visit them… and then I heard about the fire. You see, she had died a year before that… and they were all I had left of her. She gave up six years of her life to save me from Weapon X… and as we were escaping, she was shot… she died within the hour. I didn't even know she had been wounded, and she told me she would catch up, and that she needed to stay there, but I never saw her again."

"I'm so sorry, Emma." Hank said softly.

"They said it was an accident, the fire, caused by an oil leak, or something, but I know it wasn't. Their tribe didn't even have oil up there! An-and I could FEEL it, Sabretooth and Deadpool, and Agent Zero, they had been there. They kidnapped the three of them. I didn't know why, I mean, only Kassidy had developed any powers, and they were just minor little things… it was strange, but I knew they were gone. I doubt they survived this long though." Emma shuddered at the thoughts of being back in that cell on the Island.

"You were in Weapon X?" Wolverine asked, narrowing his eyes. Emma nodded, a little sickly looking.

"Can I see the boy? I want to know if this could possibly be the real Joseph Howlett." She asked, looking at Beast, for once, like she was pleading. The blue-furred mutant nodded, and led her out the door and down the hall to the infirmary, where the boy now laid on the bed, sound asleep. But before she stepped out of the lab, she glanced back at Wolverine, with a look of pity he didn't quite catch.

"This is interesting, I didn't know Emma would ever be like this. Or that, for any matter" Storm said, motioning back at the computer screen.

"Yeah, this is sure interestin'." Wolverine agreed.

Several miles back north, a young girl, about seventeen, sulked in her room. Dragging in deep breaths, she tore apart her curtains and posters decorating her wall. By the time she calmed down enough to stop, insulation was sticking out her walls at random intervals, and the yellow fluffs were littered over the floor and carpet. Retracting her strange claws into her fingers again, she looked around, noting she would need a new mattress, sheets, curtains, a door, and major wall repair… again. By the time she had shown up with her squad, Blood Sister had been pretty well drained of life, and there was no sign of Kassidy or the others. This little quest was become a bit more than annoying.  
What life Kassidy thought she could have outside of this one. Ever since she was three, she's been trained to be a killer. They've experiments on her brain, enhanced all her powers, made her the ultimate killer, and what thanks do they get? She runs away. Blows half facility up in he process, nonetheless. She betrays her own cousin, her now ex-best friend! She's going to pay! I don't care how long it takes me to take my revenge, but I will!

Her thoughts were interrupted when she ran into her father. He didn't seem to be in much better of a mood either, but she doubted it was for the same reason.

"Eh pops, what's up with you?" she said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Deadpool. I was playin' cards with the slime-ball and he won. I lost fifty bucks on that! But I know the little runt was cheatin'." He snarled, showing his fangs. The girl rolled her eyes.

"Don't let ol' Wade get the best o' ya. We both know he's a straight out idiot. He'll prob'ly just go blow it on somethin' stupid, like a bunch o' explosives to make a chair outta. Now get some shuteye, we're gonna be huntin' down dem Howlett's the next couple weeks, and we gonna make 'em regret eva bein' born."  
Sabretooth smirked down at his daughter and nodded. This was going to be fun.

A/N Shorter, I know…please review! I'm so serious about reviewing. I'll die if you don't review. Okay, maybe not DIE, but… please. Just review. Come on, you know you want to click that little button down there and write something. I don't even care if it's something stupid like 'hi'. Actually, I encourage any review at all. I just prefer stuff about my story. Please. Hey, maybe you could even subscribe…?

Fanatic out!

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	6. Chapter 6

It's been two weeks since the incident in Canada. The boy seems to be in a coma state. The kids are starting to talk. Jubilee and Kitty at the center of it, along with Rogue.

Besides that, everything was normal.  
Jean taught classes. Beast did miscellaneous experiments on random items and subjects. Storm tended to her garden. Wolverine was quiet and gloomy. Cyclops was the fearless leader. Nightcrawler… Nightcrawler.

"Rogue, I hope you remember your checkup after your classes today." Beast reminded the southern belle. "I rememba, don' worry." She assured him.  
The furry blue man nodded warmly, and walked back into the lab, leaving Rogue and Kitty to talk.  
"So… have you like, heard anything new about that guy?" Kitty asked, referring to the black haired mystery boy.  
"Why are ya so obsessed with him?"  
"I am _not_ obsessed with some- some _weirdo Canada guy _from _**Weapon X!**_"  
"Then why are ya getting' so defensive?" Rogue asked, strolling away toward her next class.

Kitty and Rogue walked along the hallways leading to Beast's lab.  
"So…"  
"Kitty, Ah know ya just gonna ta ask me about that guy. The answer's the same. Ah don't know. Why would ya think Ah knew?" Rogue snapped as she crossed the threshold into the lab, leaving Kitty outside. Looking around her, Rogue realized she was alone.  
"And he was worryin' about _me_ forgettin'." Rogue rolled her eyes, jumping up onto the table to wait. Just as she got comfortable, though, she heard a loud crash from behind a door leading to another room off of the lab. She tilted her head to the side, staring at the door. Then she realized there were muffled voices coming from under the door. Sliding down from her perch, she edged closer to the door, making sure she was quiet so as to be able to hear what the people were saying.  
"-I didn't mean to I…"  
"That's quite alright, my dear boy" the professor's voice was calm and even.  
Rogue heard someone sigh deeply, almost sounding as if the person were about to break down and cry.  
"Now do you have any secondary powers?"  
"Yeah. I absorb metal into my skeleton." The other voice sounded much more composed when it spoke this time.  
"And why did you pass out that day in Canada?"  
"There's an element in Adamantium, an artificial element, that I… react to."  
"Is there any particular reason why?"  
"N-n-no…"  
"Oh really? When we took an x-ray, we noticed something about your arms…"  
Rogue gasped. That's how they found out about Logan's claws. An x-ray showing six extra bones in his forearms.  
Apparently, she gasped _loudly_.  
"Rogue, you aren't _eavesdropping_ are you?"  
Rogue's eyes widened and she turned around to find Beast standing behind, arms crossed and knowing smirk on his lips.  
"No… Ah dropped mah hairclip!" Rogue said, reaching in her pocket for a loose clip, and pulling it out, smiling sheepishly.  
"Rogue, I've been standing here for the past minute. You didn't drop your hairclip."  
At that moment, the door Rogue had been so interested in a few seconds earlier swished open and Professor Xavier rolled through.  
"Rogue, you know our policies about privacy, here at the mansion." He began dully.  
"Ah know, professor. It's just, Ah've- we've all been so curious! Ah just- Ah just couldn't help mahself."  
"If you're so curious, why don't you just ask to meet him?" the professor suggested, raising his eyebrow and pressing his fingertips together.  
"Uh, may Ah…"  
"Yes. You may." Xavier looked back into the room and said calmly, "Joseph, you have a visitor."

The first thing Rogue saw in the dark room was a broken vase. That must've been what the crash was from. Next, was a young man, the boy from Canada, laying on a bed. He had long, shaggy black hair, and shining ice blue eyes. He was very lean, but also very thin, as if he were starved in his early years. When he saw her, he smiled a half smile, and inclined his head in a shy manner.  
"Joseph, this is Rogue. Rogue, this is Joseph." Beast introduced the two, as he closed the door behind him, closing out most of the light, except what came from the dinky little lamp in the corner.  
"Hi, Joseph."  
"Hey… Rogue… um, no offence, but that's not your real name, is it?"  
Rogue blushed slightly, and replied, "Nah, everyone just calls me that. Mah real name is Marie."  
"I don't know where you come from, but where I grew up, if everyone called me that, it would be an insult."  
"Um… ok. Thanks…?"  
Joseph paused, and muttered to himself, "where is this girl from?"  
"Um… how about you two just talk for a bit?" Beast said, "The professor and I have some other things to talk about."  
"Ok…" Rogue shrugged, and with that, the two adults left.  
There was an awkward pause, in which neither of them wanted to say something.  
"Uh… so…"  
"How old are ya?" Rogue blurted out, before she could stop herself.  
"Nineteen."  
"Um, where were ya born?"  
"What is this, 'twenty Q'?" Joseph snorted.  
"Well?" Rogue pushed.  
"Canada."  
"More specific?"  
"If I knew, I'd tell you."  
"So you're telling me you don't know where you were born?"  
"Well, that kinda happens when you're kidnapped when you're three." Joseph quipped sharply.  
"So no one knows where ya from? That must suck."  
"Ha, 'no one knows'. My sister knows. But of course, she won't tell anyone. My sister figured out who our parents are. But she won't tell me." He crossed his arms and scowled at nothing in particular.  
"Is ya sista' that knife gal we saw up north?" Joseph's expression softened, and he looked down, as if in shame.  
"Yes. We got outta Weapon X a couple months back, but her head's just too far gone."  
"What do you mean?"  
"I mean, like, she's always expecting a fight. She's just…"  
"Gotten a lust for the fight."  
"Yeah, I guess so."  
"What's her name?"  
"Kass-" he began, just as Beast and the professor came into the room.  
"Rogue, we must begin your checkup. Joseph, will you be attending dinner with the rest of the school today?" Xavier asked.  
Joseph looked at Rogue, "Are they all like her?" he nodded his head in Rogue's general direction.  
"Mostly"  
"Sure." He smiled a short, adorable little smile.

Utensils and plates clicked and tapped against each other as the residents of the Xavier Mansion ate dinner, in complete silence. Occasionally, someone would dare a look around, eyes lingering on this new guy, 'Joseph', a few seconds longer than anyone else. Kitty wouldn't even bother with anyone else, she spooned her food onto her fork, while staring at Joseph, not even looking at what she was eating.  
"So professor, how's the X-Jet coming?" Cyclops asked, tired of the silence.  
"Forge should have it fixed up shortly." Xavier answered simply, silencing Cyclops again.  
Silence again engulfed the dinner table of the X-men.  
Jubilee looked around at the others, and cleared her throat.  
"So, Cyclops… when's our next Danger Room session?" she asked, though she really didn't care.  
"Tomorrow morning."  
Jubilee rolled her eyes, she had thought Cyclops would at least _try_ to make small talk! '_I guess he's just too bland of a guy to really think of anything interesting to say_'.  
And so the table was silenced yet again.  
Joseph sat in between Rogue and the professor, next to the end of the table. He hadn't taken much food to eat, so he was done ahead of everyone else. This gave him time to scope out the rest of the people at the table. There was Rogue, the professor, Beast, a guy with blue fur and yellow eyes, an attractive blond woman with her revealing white outfit, a redhead man with bandages covering his mouth, nose, and upper chest, a redhead girl with silver skin, almost as if it were made out of some kind of smooth stone, and a blond boy with pale white skin, and a short man with long black hair, blue eyes, and a leather jacket. Rogue noticed him looking around, and whispered their names, while pointing to them in order.  
"That's Nightcrawler, Emma Frost, Chamber, Mercury, Iceman, and Wolverine. Nightcrawler's really nice, Emma is… well, unpredictable, Chamber's depressed, Mercury is your average teenage girl, Iceman's really nice too, and Wolverine… well, just don't get in his way." She ended with a wink. He smiled and nodded, silently thanking her.

Logan looked down the table to see an unfamiliar face. Black hair, blue eyes, and a very delicate looking build. 'Looks like Sleeping Beauty finally woke up.' He thought to himself.  
Logan studied the boys' features for a minute, noting every little detail. He hadn't gotten a real good look at him when they were hauling his unconscious body to the X-Jet.  
He had a real thin face. His fingers were long and thin, as were the rest of his arms. In fact, Logan felt that this boy looked so frail and thin, that he could probably snap his arm like a toothpick.  
His face was narrow, with a small narrow nose, and high cheek bones, like a Native American's. It made him think back to the third person to appear in that old shack up north. She was Native American. Didn't we find out that the three of them there had been brother and sisters? So that means he must be part Native American too. Hm, if only this information actually explained something.  
Logan, lost in his thought, hadn't noticed when the boy saw Logan staring at him.  
"Um, Rogue, why's that guy staring at me?" Joseph asked quietly.  
"I don't know…"

Logan tensed when he caught himself blanking out, eyes glued to the kid's face. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Rogue tried to get his attention. He ignored her. The boy had also tensed, frowning. He probably thought I didn't like him or something. That's not the first impression Logan would expect the kid would want, especially with Logan's appearance. When Rogue realized he was purposely ignoring her, she stopped waving her arms around. The kid caught on, and his shoulders slumped, and he pointed his face at his shoes. This kid really depended on other's opinions of him, Logan realized. When he was sure Rogue and the boy weren't looking anymore, he looked back at him.  
He still looked kind of depressed, and disappointed. Oh, if he had a quarter for every time he made someone have that expression.  
Wait…  
When was the last time I made someone have that expression? Where'd that 'if I had a quarter' thought come from anyway?  
Logan felt a kind of De-Ja-Vu as he looked at this boy.  
Where's this coming from? 

* * *

Okay, so... uh, idk.  
I didn't have anything else to say. :D  
PLEASE REVIEW!  
For the sake of Wolverine's memory!


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